So last week we blew through 6/7 Heroic on the Highmaul raid. Everyone was kinda pumped cause we were leading the server rankings by a lot. Cue last night.

Our raid leader had made no secret about his wanting to jump straight into Mythic as soon as it opened since even before the expansion release. Before the first night I recall him talking about how he was happy with the comp he’d put together for Mythic, since it’s limited to 20 people, but I never saw any word about who was on it, and at the time I didn’t know how many we’d have (once raids opened) beyond the 20.

Once raiding started it turned out we weren’t that far over 20 – we started at around 24 all three main raid nights. The actual roster for Mythic never actually came up at all that week though, though there was a small group for an extra run on Friday to push progression a bit further, which I did get invited to since he needed more casters, and that group topped out around 15 I believe.

Coming into raid time last night, no one other than our raid leader apparently knew what the plans were, so I was there 15 minutes early outside the raid instance, waiting for invite assuming we were going to do Heroic.You see, I’d been following the early top guilds and found out they were all around 665 or so already in item level, while our raid was down around 650 or so – thus I assumed we’d clear Heroic this week and try our first push at Mythic next week like reasonable raiders, maybe with one or two shots to see what kargath was like on Heroic.

Then on Vent I hear “we’re doing Mythic?” from the main tank, and our GL confirmed it, saying we were gonna give it some tries see if we get stomped or not. I start checking the raid roster trying to tell if all the invites were out or not to see if I was in or not, since he can be slow about invites, and we still hadn’t gotten an official list of the main Mythic raid roster. Finally, they start, and I’m able to count 20 folks already in, and felt my mood dropping faster than Kargath did on Heroic last Tuesday.

AT NO POINT did he ever state invites were going out or finished, and he NEVER officially stated who was on the roster. I freely admit the other S Priest in our guild is probably better, but he could have at least had the decency to let the rest of us know who was or wasn’t going to be on the Mythic roster rather than letting us figure it out after they’re in there poking the beast. It killed my sense of being a team, at least as how I felt that night to be left out completely in the cold like that rather than at least be informed about what the plans are. While I might now have been happy to find out in advance I wasn’t on the main roster, I at least would have known and had time to get used to it, or at least felt like I was enough a part of the team to be told about things like that.

It also meant I wasted time sitting outside the instance that I could have spent doing other things, and once he sent out the general invites to work on heroic instead that night, it felt like I was just going through the motions… and I’m still not happy about it either today, even after sleeping on it.

I’m also guessing that for now, loot is going to be funneled to the main Mythic raiders, so I’m probably not going to see any upgrades outside of bonus rolls or stuff form outside raids for a bit. There’s been no official word, but considering the previous lack of communication, and that we run under a “loot council” of 1(said raid leader) there probably won’t be any communication on it whether that is the case or not. It’s understandable, and would make the most sense for progression, but dammit, if we’re all a part of the same team(even benched) it would be nice to actually KNOW!

I’m also left wondering what’s going to happen when Blackrock releases. Mythic Highmaul will still be going on, so what will happen with heroic runs? Will he just jump straight into Mythic Blackrock and ignore heroic? Will there still be Heroic runs on main raid nights in a few weeks? How is he going to work bench players in, as if he just pushes and pushes, then when one of us comes in, we won’t be familiar with the fights or as geared, and that may cause progress to backslide a bit, and from what I’ve seen I believe that means he’d be even more likely to leave benched players benched then, so that we just end up twiddling our thumbs doing nothing the entire tier.

I’ll probably be discussing this with one of my friends(and one of the main healers) to see if he can put a bug in the RL’s ear to start thinking about letting the rest of us “mere mortals” know his plans and think ahead about some of these things and let us know – that way I can make plans appropriately, whether that means looking to raid heroic on different nights(if necessary with a different guild) once Mythic is in full swing. As long as I don’t touch Mythic with another guild, I’ll still be able to come in if needed, as bench players are needed for when people can’t make it.

BUT DAMMIT, IF WE’RE PART OF THE TEAM TOO THEN LET US FRIGGING KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!

</rant>

As far as classifying myself, I’d say I’m probably Mythic borderline skillwise. I still make small mistakes occasionally, but if I start screwing up regularly on a mechanic I do my best to find a way to succeed at it. Mythic is usually fairly unforgiving, and the only time I’ve done full Mythic(old heroic) clears was post-nerfs typically. Even in SOO with Chocolate Disco, we only got 4 or 5 bosses down before the 6-month break I took.

On the other hand Heroic(old Normal) is going to be too easy eventually. I was 6/7 last week, and was around middle of the pack on the DPS charts, so I wasn’t getting carried either on these fights. Even this week, on Butcher(basically a Patchwerk fight) me and the other Shadow Priest were neck and neck in damage. I look at Tectus, and he outDPSed me by 4k there, but I had to run for the debuff 5 times and he never got a single Crystalline Barrage.

Thus, borderline, as I fall into the grey area between obvious Heroic hero and natural Mythic player.

And hopefully, our guild master will start communicating better and I won’t get left behind completely, lost in the void between what he dreams of and the reality of what we have.